America Finding Her Way

Sweet Land of Fire: Rebellion. New York, 1970. the 24 hours before the “Weatherman house” on 11th street explodes.Native Land: Rejuvenation. The rebirth of a family to serve their nation by following their delinquent child’s dreams.Tracking Blood White: American magic: A dying red-neck town’s struggle with its Native American neighbors and the killer bear that haunts the mountain they share More

SWEET LAND OF FIRE explores the question: what tips exceptional young people toward political violence? The play is an imagining of what could have gone on in this elegant New York townhouse during the 24 hours before it exploded – shaking the nation – on a solar eclipse day in March 1970. At that time, the anguish of our brightest youths – over wrongful war, race divisions, poverty, and greed in this country – led them to plant bombs, (the police found enough dynamite to blow up half a block) with which they ruined their lives in an attempt to alter what they found unacceptable for America. I wanted to know “why?” – because understanding them then may help us now.

NATIVE LAND: Passionate, swift, funny rebirth of a midwest urban American family into the service of its crumbling nation by way of the mother's fierce trust. Each brilliant, stifled person in this family rips away generations of greed and betrayal to find that embracing their rebel child’s dreams will not only revive him, but rekindle them all.

Kate, once charismatic sparkplug of Viet Nam protests, now a tamed neurologist studying dreams, which her publisher husband, Alan, and their children tolerate. But when wartime buddy Mike, now a prominent lawyer, resurfaces to ask Alan to run for Governor, his daughter Jen, 19, (eager to play politics), and son Jamy, 13, (who haunts an urban excavation, bringing home an unstable vagrant), both lobby Alan to run against Kate’s wishes...until Jamy runs away, falls in the excavation, and is comatose. The evolution of the family while Kate insists they must follow Jamy’s dreams, saves everyone.

TRACKING BLOOD WHITE: Depressed south-west hunters, unemployed after drought and fire, take off from their raucous red-neck tavern to bring down a legendary killer bear that guards the timberline of their stripped “holy (to Indians) mountain.” Their skeptical women stay behind, one with a child terminally ill after being lost in the woods. They resent the Native Americans with whom they share the mountain, and who are faring better on the “Rez” (with a casino and a girl healer). The sick child’s mother defies the town, gets astonishing aid from theIndian girl healer while the hunters, attacked by the gigantic raging bear, race terrified back down the mountain, but find the Indian girl gathering herbs in a meadow, and take brutal revenge for all their humiliations. The horrible fall-out for all, and the guilty hunters’ ascent back to the mountain top to face their mystical nemesis, Blood White, bring a devastating and transcendent battle before peace returns to the People.

An actor turned writer, Karen performed many leading roles Off-Broadway, and was Associate Director of CSC Repertory. Her plays have been performed Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, on a USA tour, and in eleven countries and seven languages.

Sunde’s first screenplay, UNDERCOVER PATRIOT, a finalist at Sundance, optioned. Then PARALLEL LOVES for Terra Bella Entertainment, Los Angeles; BOULE DE SUIF (adapt Maupassant) for Dace Direction, London; DREAM HOUSE for Passport Films, NYC; THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE for Howard S Shulman Productions, NYC; THE SECRET SHIP, under option; FINAL QUEST: THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GODS; TRIPPING TAMMY; LOVE HITS EARTH(& Other Disasters); NEXT!; adaptations of HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM, in pre-production as The ABRAHAM FILM PROJECT, and IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA. check www.howardshulman.com

Published plays: DARK LADY, produced Abbey Theatre, Ireland, Aalborg State Theatre, Denmark, optioned for film; BALLOON, won three VILLAGER awards Off-Broadway, nominated Best Play by Outer Critics Circle, aired Radio France; HAITI: A DREAM in FACING FORWARD, produced Seven Stages, Atlanta, aired WNYC, WHYY, NPR; TO MOSCOW, premiered Ankara National Theatre, Turkey, Chain Lightning, New York; OH WILD WEST WIND in ROWING TO AMERICA, produced Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey (PTNJ). PLAYS BY KAREN SUNDE includes TRUTH TAKES A HOLIDAY, read La MaMa, New York City (NYC); IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA produced PTNJ, HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM, produced PTNJ, Praxis Theatre Project, NYC, premiered at The Unicorn, Kansas City. ANTON, HIMSELF for Actors Theatre of Louisville, also played The Moscow Art Theatre, the Yalta Festival in Russia, Peoples Light and Theatre, NYU in New York. THE FASTEST WOMAN ALIVE produced Luna Stage, NJ, Praxis, NYC, Edinburgh Festival (2010); KABUKI OTHELLO, produced People's Light and Theatre Company and Annenberg Center, Philadelphia; Wisdom Bridge, Chicago; KABUKI LADY MACBETH produced Chicago Shakespeare Theater, cited for five JEFF Awards, including "Best New Work," Best Production," "Best Direction:" IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA, 2009. Scenes from TO MOSCOW; ANTON, HIMSELF; MASHA, TOO; and ABRAHAM appear in SCENES & MONOLOGS FROM THE BEST NEW PLAYS.

Among 23 plays--for Actors Theatre of Louisville; People's Light and Theatre; The Acting Company, NYC, Sunde wrote KABUKI MACBETH, KABUKI KING RICHARD and ACHILLES, which toured Hungary, Cyprus, and Japan. She co-wrote musical QUASIMODO,(a musical) premiered Byrdcliffe Festival, Woodstock, NY, produced Lahti City Theatre, Finland. For Cheltenham Center, Philadelphia, she wrote LA PUCELLE (ME & JOAN) and DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING (TRACKING BLOOD WHITE). In NYC: for Chain Lightning, WHEN REAL LIFE BEGINS, for The Working Theatre, 2020 SEXCARE in FREE MARKET; for Tisch School, NYU, Table and Chair Handmade Theatre, PLEASE GOD, NO WEDDING OR SHOOTING AT THE END! Opera THE SPA with composer Michael Dilthey. also at http://www.dramaticpublishing.com

Sunde’s won a McKnight Fellowship, an NDEA Fellowship, the Aide de la Creation award in France, the Bob Hope Award, lives in New York City, served on the theatre panel of New Jersey Council on the Arts, and the new plays panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, was La MaMa ETC (New York)'s nominee for the Laura Pels/​PEN award.